April 5, 2000 - Decline of Young Teen Births in Cincinnati Appears Faster Than National Trend
CINCINNATI -- Births to young teenage girls in Cincinnati have declined 29 percent since 1993 - faster, apparently, than the national trend, according to the annual evaluation of the Postponing Sexual Involvement (PSI) program.
PSI, a United Way agency, is a collaborative effort between Children's Hospital Medical Center and the Cincinnati Public Schools aimed at reducing teen parenthood. Hamilton County Family and Children First is also a major contributor. PSI has received the highest rank of effectiveness among 30 top teen pregnancy prevention programs reviewed by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
"Young teen births have gone down and stayed down since the onset of the PSI program in the Cincinnati Public Schools," says Christopher Kraus, J.D., PSI coordinator. "The first year of full PSI implementation for all Cincinnati Public School seventh graders was 1992. While the PSI program cannot claim credit for this dramatic trend, it would be reasonable to infer that PSI is among the many factors responsible for the decline in births to young teens."
The evaluation looks at births in five central-city hospitals to girls 12 to 16 years old living within Cincinnati Public School district zip codes. Births declined from 391 in 1993 to 276 in 1999. The greatest decline in teen births, 48 percent, was among 15 year olds -- from 125 in 1993 to 65 in 1999.
A direct comparison between local and national births is not available, in part because national statistics look at birth rates, while PSI looks at numbers of births. Still, the national birth rate for 10- to 14-year-olds declined 27 percent between 1994 and 1998. In addition, the birth rate for 15 to 17-year-olds nationally declined 21 percent between 1991 and 1998.
Two physicians at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati brought PSI to Cincinnati, and the program began in the Cincinnati Public Schools in September of 1990. PSI heavily involves role playing, in which older teens, known as "teen leaders," provide the instruction. These teen leaders must serve as believable messengers for the proposition that teens can postpone sex and still be normal.
In the classroom, middle-school-age students play out classic confrontations between boys and girls, learning to cope with and resist social and peer pressure to become sexually active at a young age.
"The teen leaders are the single most influential factors in this program's success, based on program evaluations," says Kraus. "They give compelling reasons to postpone sexual intercourse."
PSI has a training service funded in part by the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati to assist other school districts in the tri-state and the United States establish their own teen leadership program. For information, please call 513- 872-8948.
Contact Information
Jim Feuer,
jfeuer@chmcc.org, 513-636-4420
